A long-range strike from Ousmane Dembele saw Barcelona defeat Sevilla 2-1 in the one-legged 2018 Spanish Super Cup. Pablo Sarabia had given Sevilla an early lead, before Gerard Pique's equaliser and Dembele's winner, while Sevilla's Wissam Ben Yedder even missed a last minute penalty.

Sevilla started energetically and brightly, perhaps benefiting from the fact that they've already been finding their rhythm in Europa League qualifiers. They took the lead after just nine minutes when Pablo Sarabia finished well. The goal was initially ruled out for offside, but this was corrected by VAR.

Barcelona immediately improved after that early setback and little by little pushed Sevilla back.

They had a great chance to equalise just before the half hour mark, but former Sevilla man Clement Lenglet shot over when he should have hit the target.

Barcelona did get their equaliser in the 42nd minute, when a Lionel Messi freekick struck the post and when Gerard Pique slotted home the rebound.

Besides one Franco Vazquez header off the top of the crossbar, Barcelona were the better team after the break, even more so with the introductions of Ivan Rakitic and Philippe Coutinho. But goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik was playing well and denied Dembele, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi.

The winning shot then arrived in the 78th minute, as Dembele picked up the ball and blasted it past Vaclik.

Sevilla had a great chance to pull level when Marc-Andre ter Stegen conceded a penalty in the final minute, but the German goalkeeper redeemed himself by saving from Wissam Ben Yedder.

There were many positives from both sides to take away from this match. Sevilla can be proud of how they pushed Barcelona and of how they competed much better than when they lost April's Copa del Rey final 5-0, while Barcelona will be pleased to have found a way to win what was their first game of the season.